Chocolate Most Deadly (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 2) Read Free Page B

“He was arrested this morning.”
    “Not arrested,” she said. “They
just wanted to talk to him again about the guy that lives across the hall.” She
drank more tea and then pushed away the cup. “I’ll wait until that cools a
little,” she continued. “But anyway, uh…” Her eyes were blank and motionless,
locked on an indistinct point in the distance. “Tim’s a good kid,” she said
finally. “He didn’t do so well in school. And he’s really struggled with the
drinking. But his band is starting to take off. They opened for somebody famous
a couple of months ago in Albuquerque.”
    “That sounds promising,” I said. “I
take it he’s a musician?”
    She smiled. “Guitar and keyboards.
And he can sing like nobody’s business.”
    The shift in her expression
suggested that she was replaying a fond memory in her mind, so I let her
daydream for a moment. After I took a few sips of tea and finished my cookie, I
asked her to continue telling me what she’d learned from her brother’s
girlfriend.
    “Well, he was at work earlier,” she
said. “He’s got a day job at a coffee shop in Cherry Creek. And then the band
plays gigs at night and on weekends. I tried talking him into going back to
school, but…” She smiled and shrugged. “Sorry, that’s not exactly relevant. I
just can’t quite focus at the moment, you know? I’m pretty freaked out and—”
    I took her hand and squeezed it
tightly. “Viv? It’s okay. I get it. Anybody would be upset if they found out
someone tried to murder their brother.”
    A sigh slipped from her lips. “But
me being freaked out won’t do anything for Tim,” she said quietly. “I hoped you
might have a suggestion about what to do next.”

CHAPTER
3
     
     
    My work as a private investigator
in Chicago was common knowledge. Since I’d moved back to Crescent Creek, I
wasn’t surprised when someone asked me to regale them with my previous
sleuthing adventures or suggest the best surveillance camera to catch their
duplicitous spouse in compromising positions. I usually deflected the inquiries
by launching into a description of how my childhood love of detective novels
foreshadowed my decision to spend ten years as a PI before leaving it all
behind to take over Sky High Pies from my parents. In Viveca’s case, however, I
was prepared to make an exception and offer whatever advice seemed appropriate.
    “Let’s keep talking,” I said. “What
else did his girlfriend tell you?”
    “I hate to take advantage of your
expertise,” Viveca added. “But do you think I should call a lawyer?”
    “Why would you do that?”
    She sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve got
a bad feeling about this…” She stopped, deep in thought. “I get premonitions
sometimes—when people are sick, if somebody’s in trouble, the night before my
father died.”
    “And you feel something like that
now about your brother?”
    “Yes. And I think a lawyer might be
helpful.”
    “Do you know someone?”
    She thought for a moment or two.
“Only back in Idaho.”
    “I could put together a list if
you’d like.”
    “Delilah said they’d probably…” She
smiled and rolled her eyes. “Sorry, I’m going a million miles a minute.
Delilah’s my brother’s girlfriend. She said that if Tim did get arrested the
city will probably assign a court-appointed attorney if he can’t afford to hire
one. Is that true?”
    “Generally,” I said. “Does he have
the resources to hire a lawyer?”
    She shook her head.. “He’s got an
old Subaru, a cat named Bad Dog and an apartment that he subleases from some
shady guy named Toby.”
    I smiled. “Bad Dog?”
    “My brother’s got a twisted sense
of humor. When we were kids, our parents got us a Lab from the city pound. Tim
and I flipped a coin to decide who’d name him. I won. And Good Dog was my
constant companion until he died in his sleep one night.” A shadow of sorrow
darkened her gaze. “But those twelve years were awesome!” she